10 things you can implement for better website conversions

Everybody wants to start with making it look pretty. But the primary goal of a website is to get a conversion, whether it’s a phone call, contact form lead, newsletter signup, ad clicks, or product sales. When our customers come to us to design a new website or redesign an existing website we do not just think about how the website will physically look. Actually that is one of the final things we discuss. Here at ITDwebdesign.com we consult with our clients on the primary goals of the website that will dictate the ultimate design of the functionality. Function design is the first and most important consideration when developing a business website.

1. Keep navigation minimal

When we sit down with a client to discuss how the website should be developed, we talk with them on how important it is to keep the website navigation as clear and minimal as possible. Now on some ecommerce websites this is hard to do. But with proper planning it can be achieved. Keep your website navigation as minimal as possible, focusing on the primary landing pages. Offering too many choices will confuse visitors and cause them to lose their focus about your services and products.

2. Focus on content

At ITDwebdesign.com we like to think of content as “Google Food”. You have to feed the beast, because he has a huge appetite. So having enough content on your landing pages is a very important consideration. We advise clients to have at minimum 1,000 words of content on their primary landing and informational pages. Actually the more content you have, the better your SEO efforts will be. Make sure your content is informative, and flows naturally as if you were speaking to someone personally.

But having text on a page is not enough. Content comes in a variety of media these days. Consider not only offering text on your landing pages, but also video and other forms of media. Pages that contain videos that inform the visitor about a product or service usually convert higher than just plain text pages..

3. Prioritize the mobile experience

Mobile usage has surpassed desktop usage in today’s world. So why are so many websites not taking advantage of this fact? With the amount of responsive websites and adaptive website templates and themes available there’s really no reason that your website should not be mobile friendly. Keeping your conversion process mobile friendly is key. Checkout pages, contact forms, and click to call features should be fast, accessible, and easy to use.

4. Add contact forms to primary landing pages

Most business websites have a single contact us page with a contact form on it and that’s about as far as it goes. Consider having a short contact form on every one of your primary landing sales pages and product pages. In a shopping cart you may want to consider adding a form on your products pages like “ask a question about this product” or “Get more information” types of forms.

5. Clear Calls To Action

Having very clear calls to action on your website is a very crucial key to your success. Prominent contact buttons, phone numbers, and add to cart buttons along with easy ways for visitors to get help are an easy way to get conversions. The goal is to make it as easy as possible for customers to do business with you. Many website owners do not realize how important it is to have calls to actions everywhere on their website. They usually focus so much on the page or product content that they often overlook calls to action elements and then they wonder why they are getting no sales or leads.

6. Live Chat

This is a much lesser used feature that is overlooked and passed up by too many business owners. Many website owners do not want to have to monitor a chat window or they do not have anyone available to monitor it efficiently. ITDwebdesign.com offers monitored chat solutions to our clients that allow them a hands free, set it and forget it website chat feature. You can set it up so that the chat agents can answer a website visitor’s questions and gather their contact information for the business owner or salesperson to follow up with them at a more convenient time. The chat agents can also go a step further and even connect the visitor by phone to the business in real time so that the sales funnel can be further developed with the visitor.

7. White Paper Downloads and Free Offers

Simple newsletter sign up forms are also great to include if you have some information to exchange in return for the visitor’s email address. Valuable information such as white papers or information rich tutorials are an easy way to get users to convert into qualified leads that are interested in what you’re doing or selling.

8. Set up sales funnels

Sales funnels are the steps that your website visitors go through on their journey to becoming a paying customer. Paying attention to how your website visitors interact with your website allows you to refine your sales funnel to obtain more conversions. This can include email drip campaigns, social media likes and follows, lead contacts, and flyer mailings. Defining where your marketing efforts are the most fruitful will help your sales funnel be most effective and bring you more quality targeted visitors.

9. Nurture campaigns

Using any of the methods above to gain leads is great, but what do you do after the visitor has taken the next step in your sales funnel? If you are collecting email addresses or social media likes you can easily start providing those users with an informational drip campaign. This is referred to as Inbound Marketing Automation. These campaigns will send the contact multiple time based information that is automatically scheduled to go out to them over time. Most contacts will not buy from a business on their first interaction. These contacts will need to get to know you. Your company needs to “nurture” the leads into taking additional steps in the sales funnel and ultimately turn them into a paying customer.

10. Communicate Trust and Value

If your visitors have no faith in you then why should they purchase from you instead of the other guy down the street? We make sure that the websites we build for our clients display a confidence of trust. Customer testimonials are a great way to showcase how happy your customers are with your service or products. Showing reviews from third party review websites like Yelp, Google Reviews, Angie’s List, etc. are also worth showing and linking to. Create the feeling of value in your support and service offerings to your potential customers. Value is a perception thing. Everyone values things at different levels. So by showing that the value of your service and support is better than the competition, more people will want to do business with you versus someone else.